Enthusiasms and expostulations, by Glenn Kenny

November 07, 2010

Good weekend

Saw two "thons" this weekend. The first, and more cinephilically congenial, was up in Suffern, held by my friends at the Lafayette Theatre...

...for the occasion, a three-day fest of which I was able to be present at two, Lafayette burgomeister Nelson Page displayed a couple of rare and fantastic one-sheets, above. Saturday we saw a lovely print of Bride of Frankenstein, a film that molded me as much as Psycho did (and who among us can't say the same thing, really?), and an even better print of Erle Kenton's House of Dracula, a quite hilariously dreadful piece of work that bears certain affinities with SIodmak on the one hand (the "Moonlight Sonata"-goes-faux-Antheil scene) and with Wood, Jr. on the other ("Say, look—it's Frankenstein's monster!" etc.).

Sunday was the New York Marathon. Believe it or not, in 2012 I hope to be among these schmucks. The runners, I mean. The fellow spectators in the shot are all friends and not a schmuck among them. Here they, and I, are, from the reverse angle:

Who's this "Keith" "Katz," you ask, and is he any relation to filmmaker Aaron? As a matter of fact, they're cousins, but never mind. Our Mr. Katz was among the...aforementioned...runners this year...

...bless him, and he has been something of an inspiration to me, regaling me with terrifying tales of "long short runs" of 11 or 12 miles or so that I'll be in for if I opt to follow his, erm, footsteps. What am I thinking? I suppose I'll find out. Anyway, Keith seemed to be keeping his cool as he paused to greet his clamoring followers a few miles in...

...after which it was back to Suffern. I promised in my last dispatch from the Lafayette that next time I'd share some views of its fantastic ceiling retouching, so here you are:

Today my old friend Joseph Failla and I took great pleasure in Corman's The Raven...

Hazel Court, WTFIU?...also, playing Peter Lorre's son—

...lately Jack is looking rather like Peter did in this 1963 goof...also seen was a superb print of the American International cut of Bava's Black Sabbath, just fantastically enjoyable. Nelson's partner in keeping motley movie nuts happy, Pete Apruzzese, projected these prime selections beautifully. While My Lovely Wife came out on Saturday and had a great time, I couldn't goad her into this particular bill, despite passionate protestations ("But Jean-Pierre Leaud's mom is in the Bava!"). You can't have everything. But this was quite a lot. And now, I am exhausted.

Comments

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You really don't look like you anymore. Not that I've ever met you in person or anything, but still -- this transformation gets more astounding by the day. Which I mean as a compliment. But really, it's getting close to head-spinning.

Meanwhile, I rank that version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA as one of the great disappointments of the classic era of horror films. Guys, Claude Rains is RIGHT THERE!! And you let him disappear for, like, an hour, in favor of who? A couple of blanks like Nelson Eddy and Edgar Barrier?? I just don't understand your thinking there...

I tried to make it out for Horror-Thon this weekend but I never quite made it up to the Lafayette. Shame as I really wanted to catch Bride of Frankenstein and maybe Carnival of Souls. The Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera they showed last week for Halloween was a pretty dire print, but Jeff Barker on the Wurlitzer was, as always, wonderful. I had the chance to take someone who had never seen a silent film before and the experience for them was a real eye opener.